Ashurah DeValle
Mortal Life Early Years Ashurah was born Devovea DeValle in Deling City to Marcos and Roxana DeValle. At least that's what it says on her birth certificate. The truth is, Ashurah never knew her biological parents. For reasons she never became privy to, Ashurah was given up for adoption when she was three months old, spending only a few extra months in an orphanage on the outskirts of the city before she was taken in by the couple who would become her real family. The Vegas were a slightly older couple and the ideal family on the outside; Ashurah's father, Francis, was partner in a firm that specialized in high end corporate law, and her mother, Marisol, was a debutante who spent much--if not all--of her time perfecting her and her husband's social image. Unfortunately, Marisol had been unable to have children of her own, but she had always wanted a daughter to whom she could pass down her debutante traditions. Francis, however, was hardly interested in expanding their family, and viewed the addition of a child as the equivalent of buying his wife a puppy. It was really only because of this that he agreed to the adoption, hoping the new baby would keep his wife happy, healthy, entertained and out of his business. And it did for a while. For the first few years of her youth, Ashurah--Devovea--was the joy of her mother's life, though her passionate personality became increasingly difficult to ignore. By the time Devovea was five, Marisol began to show signs of wear and boredom with her daughter and the young girl's incessantly disobedient demeanor. It hadn't started on purpose, however, as Devovea simply lost interest in playing "dress up" and "tea party"--her mother's versions of them anyway--and grew more interested in sports, playing with the neighbourhood boys, climbing anything taller than one story, and just generally being rambunctious. As her daughter's energy became more and more difficult to control, so became Marisol's temper. Eventually, "dress up" and "tea party" became mandatory daily activities--all day marathons--with the only other option being a firm lashing and straight to bed without dinner. With her father remaining almost completely out of the picture, the young child had no authority and no power over her mother except for the occasional incontrollable tantrum. Eventually the tantrums became fewer as Devovea became more accustomed to her mother's punishments, learning that even if she bore a bruise for her bad behavior, no one would ever see it the next day."My mother thought she had perfection down to an art, but really, she just liked to make a fool of herself. And she would have been damn good at it, except for the fact that no one important to her thought of her as a fool, and if they did, they certainly didn’t have the balls to say it to her face. I wouldn’t have either. In fact, I think I did once, and I got the back of a hand imprinted in my cheek for what felt like a week. The greatest part about that? She knew exactly what makeup to use to cover the bruise. Good ol’ Mum." As Devovea grew older, her mother grew ever more involved in planning events for her family and her daughter, leaving the girl's education and upbringing to tutors and a governess, none of which treated her with much kindness or respect. They were all connected through the Vegas tight-knit circle of peers, all of them tightly wound and unconcerned for the feelings of an individual and more concerned about their own reputation and income. All Devovea knew was the less trouble she caused, the less she suffered socially. With no motherly love, a mostly absent father-figure, no real friends and only the children of other stuffy, high-class individuals to connect with, it was around the age of 9 that Devovea began to grow accustomed to functioning as well as she could on her own. Things couldn't remain the same forever, though, and when the façade of Devovea's life began to crack before the public eye, she was still the picture of perfect serenity while the emotions in her raged dangerously beneath the surface. Not long after her eleventh birthday, Devovea's parents divorced and separated due to her father having an affair. It wasn't enough for him to leave it at that, though, and before he left he made it perfectly clear what he thought of his wife, or rather how little he actually did think of her. Worse even, no mention was ever made of what he thought of Devovea, if he even thought of her at all. Wanting her was even more out of the question. It didn't even matter that his wife took most of his assets in the divorce; Francis's only goal was to get out, no matter the cost, leaving his daughter completely behind. Being left in her mother's sole custody was devastating to the pre-teen, and though she was still painfully aware of her mother's temper and the consequences of invoking it, it didn't stop Devovea. She began making a point to act out wherever she could, though she learned very quickly that even if she thought her mother had no patience before, it was nothing compared to her lack of patience now. The rebellions were half-hearted--some even broken-hearted in their attempt to make her mother see her again as a child, her child, and not just a disappointment to her high-class name and a burden on her household. The very little amount of love her mother did show only translated to Devovea as pity in the end, making the severely introverted girl fold further into herself. For years after, Devovea watched the world go by behind a glass smile until finally she couldn't bear the balls and parties and dresses and fake friends anymore. At her coming-out party, with all her mother's guests gathered, Ashurah blew the roof off of the reception with her announcement that she was enrolling at Garden and planned to join SeeD."It was probably the most liberating thing I had ever done up until that point. Sucks I didn't think it through. I mean, here I was in the middle of a room of politicians, rich people and military, giving them the grand 'fuck you' by telling them I was joining up with a mercenary faction I…actually knew nothing about at that point. But my mother made sure that if I was going to make a fool of her, I sure as hell wasn't going to do it half-assed. I was shipped off to Galbadia Garden for testing the next week." Joining Garden and Becoming SeeD It was lucky that they issued a uniform to every student when they were admitted to Garden, as Devovea was completely on her own from the time she stepped out of her mother's house. What was worse was even though she had plenty of schooling on being sociable in theory, putting all of that knowledge into practice was near impossible for her. Here she was in a completely different environment from what she was used to, and had no idea how to connect with the free-spirited cadets that littered the loud hallways. For the first year and a half, Devovea kept to herself, immersing herself in her studies under her instructors, and spending her spare time alone--in the training room, the quad, out around the grounds, it didn't matter. It was easier being by herself than having an awkward conversation with someone who was bound to give up on her as a friend eventually. And in actuality, she was content with that. It gave her time to herself, time she needed to forget her home life and get adjusted to the prospect of being a fighter. She had the spirit, but absolutely no skill and barely any discipline. So she learned. She changed her last name back to her birth name when she was able to legally do so, feeling that it made it easier to slip through the cracks if no one knew she was a Vega. Devovea was one of the top students when it came to grades, and one of the hardest workers when it came to the field, so most--if not all--of her instructors were content to leave her to her own devices. It wasn't until her final semester before her field exam that she ran into a brick wall, one named Theodore Albrecht. According to the other cadets, Instructor Albrecht had a different way about him; having been trained in the Galbadian military, he was eager to push his students past their self-set limits and turn them into more than just mercenaries. Devovea had been confident about his class until she realized her lone-wolfish ways were hardly going to cut it. In the beginning, she loathed him. Granted, he was certainly enough eye candy to get any sane-headed teenage girl through the rough lectures, but it was the field training that gummed up the works. During the week, there was early morning marching, conditioning--every morning, even on weekends for potential graduates. Afternoons were filled with drills and recitations, with Devovea very often at the receiving end of an emotional assault."Looking back on it now, I'm really grateful for it. At the time, it would just tear me to pieces, thinking all I was doing was obeying orders and every time he was in my face, screaming he couldn't hear me, and dredge up wounds that my family had been so keen to give me first. But he did me a favour, really. Dragging all of that out of me so hopefully I could rebuild. I feel like I did. It didn't last long then, but it helped." Even during the night, the quest for rest was futile, as Instructor Albrecht was particularly fond of impromptu midnight drills, some that even lasted right up until the following mornings sunrise drill. And then he would keep them for that. At the end of each week, he would take his cadets to the training center (or to the Fire Cavern if weather and time permitted), and test them on all the knowledge they had acquired in his class, asking them to demonstrate as much information as they could to show that they had retained his lectures. And every week, Devovea worked herself to the bone to make sure she was the first to clear her area, as efficiently as possible even though often she would be wounded by the end of the exercise. She prided herself on being able to complete the task on her own, while other cadets usually struggled to count kills even in small pairs or groups. Every week, the cadets were dismissed for lunch and a good bit of rest after the activity. Every week, Devovea was asked to stay behind for cleanup detail. Week after week went by, and the harder Devovea worked to remain on top, the harder Instructor Albrecht seemed to work to tear her down; increasing her detail or drilling her harder in front of all the other cadets. Devovea didn't know what else to do than to retreat into her shell, put on her game face as she always did with her mother and take the brunt. But for some reason it wasn't working. Finally, she got fed up with the abuse and confronted Instructor Albrecht one afternoon after he had dismissed the cadets for lunch and once again kept her after for detail. After pointing out her achievements--that she was always the first to complete her assignment, even taking on monsters that they weren't even supposed to know how to handle yet--and how most of the other cadets are stuck straggling behind together, she was shocked to be told flat out that actually, the other students weren't the ones not completing the assignment. She was. : "The assignment was never to finish first or be the best, DeValle. You were supposed to show me you paid attention and actually retained some information by using everything I've taught you, and you always miss the most important part. You know, you may think I'm just military prick that came in here to purposely fuck up your life, but if there's one thing you'll take away from my class it's that you have to work together and learn to trust one another. It's what you do in a team, you realize that's what you're working for right? You can go ahead, work as hard as you want Dev, beat yourself up until you're a zombie, I don't care. If you can't start to understand that you're not alone here, I'll never recommend you for graduation." At the time she was infuriated by his speech, but his words were the catalyst that turned her life around. She was determined to graduate, to finish something she started now that she had worked so hard to achieve it, she wasn't going to quit. The first week after that was pure rebellion, sticking to her guns and taking her cleanup detail in silence, but as she realized that Instructor Albrecht would never back down, she began to rethink her strategy. Soon, she was dishing back his verbal assaults during drills, their yelling matches escalating into outright emotional brawls until finally he would give in and move on to the next cadet with a proud grin plastered on his stupidly gorgeous face. And the weekly exercises were finally a rest for her, as she learned to double back and at least check on her classmates. The more she learned to stand up for herself and let herself be part of a team, the more she found she actually wanted to do those things. And eventually, on the day of her graduation as a Rank A SeeD, Instructor Albrecht approached her and looked her in the eye as an equal. It was no surprise then that shortly thereafter she received her first assignment as a member of Theodore Albrecht's team. The next few years were spent on missions all over the continent and beyond, travelling and seeing places she never thought she'd see in her lifetime, and getting paid to do it. She didn't always agree with the mission, but she wasn't paid to argue, and she was content as long as she was with the members of her group and they were all safe by the end of the day. She and Theodore grew closer, so close in fact that she began to see him as a brother, something that she had always wanted--needed--in her life, but never could have had. For the first time she didn't just feel like she had a real friend. She knew she had one. It certainly didn't stop them from bickering on occasion, however, with Devovea dissolving into one of her whining tirades, and Theo calling her out by nicknaming her Asherah, poking fun at her queen of heaven act that he knew was more than likely just her being unable to express something deeper. They were rare moments of ridicule, and they always earned him a sound beating, but the two of them enjoyed the conflict and would end up laughing about it a mere few hours later. Everything was finally working out great for Devovea. The Casimir Trials & Court Martial of Devovea DeValle It was only supposed to be a routine mission, they were told. Their first clue to a bad omen should have been their commissioners, a group of people known as the Casimir Clan, a rather shifty looking--and acting--troupe of men that no one questioned because of their immense offer of payment. The only condition Garden was to agree to in order to receive the commission was to make sure their elite SeeDs would be readily available for however long it took to complete their task. And as long as they kept paying Garden, it didn't really matter the duration of the contract. Theo's team was the first to be selected for the job, a team consisting of himself, Devovea, and three other SeeDs, two of them having graduated with Devovea. The five of them had formed--what Devovea thought--was a well suited, well oiled machine, so there was never any question in their minds that they were the right ones for the job, even if it meant an unknown amount of time away from home. The mission meant crossing the intercontinental bridge through Fisherman's Horizon to come to the city of Esthar, where they were to begin reconnaissance and gathering information. It took nearly three weeks of field work to gather the information they needed to finally act on their findings, but what was so unsatisfying was how deeply they had to dig under the surface of the city to get that information. Theo put himself in charge of the dirtiest of the work, as he had the most training and was sure that if he did get into a mess, the other four could easily bail him out with Devovea as their leader. But just as the case was coming to a head and the finish line began to come into view, the group was forced to take drastic action to clean up a mess they found was caused by the Casimirs themselves. It was an excruciating 37 hours of intense recovery attempts, but in their exhaustion and panic the group was split, the three cadets on their own and Devovea and Theo together. And that's all she remembers. After she woke quite a few days later in the Infirmary back in Galbadia, Garden officials wasted no time serving Devovea DeValle with a court martial for attempted desertion and for suspected involvement in the disappearance of one Instructor Theodore Albrecht. While she could barely get her head around the court martial itself, Devovea was completely floored at even the idea of Theo having disappeared, even if she had been hit over the head or whatever it was they told her happened. No one knew and could only speculate from her injuries, and in the end her doctors ended up testifying that the injuries she sustained showed no evidence of attempted flight, debunking the claim against her for desertion. What got to her completely and utterly was that the whole idea of desertion had started due to the statements of the other three SeeDs that had been with her before the separation. Most of the trial was surreal and passed by her in a blur. The entire time, all Devovea could think was that Theo was not really gone; that was not his blood they found covering the crime scene three blocks down from where she was; that he was not dead like everyone speculated, and they would see that the minute he walked through those doors, throwing his arms up in the air and yelling at everyone to hold the phone. That not only was he just damn fine, but that Devovea DeValle was no deserter. But it never happened. And Devovea found herself hollowly defending her own case without any support from her teammates, or her best friend. Her brother. Because he was dead. In the end, Devovea managed to pull enough evidence together from the doctors and from the information Theo had found against the Casimirs to at least get her off for desertion, and protect her and her teammates from a breach of contract, but for the rest of her time at Garden, the stigma of being the last one to see everyone's beloved Instructor Albrecht alive carried with her. That stigma, and the loneliness that ultimately came with it, drove Devovea slowly back into her shell for a short period, but after everything that Theo had taught her, there was no permanent shell to hide in any longer. After a few months, she became an outwardly angry person, unashamed of the brash personality that developed out of her own pain and everyone else's apathy toward her. She grew ever more bold and openly rebellious, demanding solo tasks that no one in their right mind would take, hoping to propel herself into situations where she would be able to shamelessly take out her anger and pent up aggression on the world. So of course, given her attitude that clearly stated she had little care for her own well-being, Fate would see it fit to lead her straight into Deling City in the dead of night. Embrace & Pre-Esthar Fisherman's Horizon Journey to Esthar The Brujah Campaign Involvement The Jade Rose Obsidian Nights Moonlight's Lament The Two Year Break Crucible of Wolves Torpor and Recovery Combat Coterie Relations Ashurah is well aware that not everyone she comes in contact with will like her; in fact, she prefers it that way. However, since having drawn up a mostly permanent residence in Esthar, Ashurah has managed to become quite close with a few of her fellow Kindred, even becoming semi-attached to the few of them she openly detests. As much as she would loathe to admit it, these relationships have shaped her into the vampire she is today. Marquis Kohnz Persephone Lattimoore Persephone is (arguably) the better half of what is probably the most unlikely and shocking friendship Ashurah has ever allowed herself to have. Though Ashurah's initial goals were merely to be the ruffle in the Toreador's prim and proper feathers, their relationship grew to one of good natured fun and friendship, trust and even a bit of admiration on Ashurah's part. Her loyalty to Persephone is unwavering, as is the severity with which she would protect her friend in a dire situation. She likes to think that she has played at least a small role in Persephone's growth as a fighter (as well as giving her a neverending stone with which to sharpen her blade of a tongue). On the opposite end of the spectrum--though Ashurah would never openly give her the satisfaction of knowing--Persephone can easily be accredited to Ashurah's more recent lack of hostility toward finer clothing. Her first and foremost priority--she would tell you--is always to cause a commotion, but these days at least she is a little more likely to be seen doing it in style. Leena Iser Theodore Albrecht Adrienne Maha Samantha Augustus Saint-Pierre To say that Ashurah likes Gus would be a complete overstatement. To say that Gus likes Ashurah would be down right blasphemous. It is virtually impossible to count the number of times that Ashurah has--either by accident or intentionally--gone out of her way to annoy the stuffy, snobbish Ventrue and make his position in the coterie difficult to enjoy. Wherever there is a battle, Ash is right smack in the middle of it--if she didn't start it, which is pretty much the bane of Gus' existence since most of the time he would give anything to be able to settle issues diplomatically. Still, even with their contradictory natures, whenever there is a fight they would still back each other up. Ashurah has at least enough respect for Gus to have his back and vice versa. But if she ever gets a chance to make him extremely uncomfortable, she takes it. His usually intense, adverse reaction always gives her an immense amount of pleasure. Miranda Siryania Jordana Amory NPC Relations Damien Everard Derrick Sheffield Everyone else might walk on egg shells around her but she's no china doll and I'm not going to start treating her like one now. ''--''Derrick, Elysium with Ashurah Derrick and Ashurah have what she would now confidently call a meaningful friendship based on mutual respect, but it didn't always feel that way to her. Upon first arriving in Esthar, Ashurah was rather openly taken with Derrick, impressed not only by his image but also the confidence with which he carried himself, even when he was being lazy or casual with the group. However, at this point in her unlife, Ashurah was still very much a young vampire, more accustomed to ephemeral feelings and experiences, and still very unsure of herself and her capabilities. She interpreted Derrick's distance as an authoritative boundary, realizing that he only saw her as what she was--a rambunctious, immature Neonate in need of conditioning. Things between them only became estranged further when Ashurah's attention diverted to Damien Everard, and Derrick called her out on it during a clan meeting, to which Ashurah spat back that "it was only after she realized she had no chance with her unfeeling Whip"Brujah Clan Meeting 4, pg. 2. that she began to search elsewhere for what she felt she needed, which Damien provided. During the rest of the Jade Rose campaign, their interactions can barely be noted as civil, often dissolving into arguments that left Ashurah feeling inadequate and weak, as the more she tried to reach out to Derrick, the more he pushed her away, leaving her to nurse her pride every time. It wasn't until later during the Obsidian Nights campaign that Ashurah began to mature and started to learn to appreciate the friends she chose for who they were, Derrick included. She was constantly vigilant on herself to remain distanced from him emotionally so that she could be a friend to him (even if a lot of the times she failed miserably), compelled by the example of strength he set in her life. Eventually she started to value him for what he could provide her, his advice, his gritty, Brujah attitude and his silent support meaning the most to her above that from others. As much as she wants to openly hope that he has come to value her presence as much as she values his, she is careful not to allow herself to dwell too much on that fact given both of their tempers and often ill-managed methods of communication. She takes him how he is, and expects no more, no less. When Ashurah was brought out of torpor during the events of Crucible of Wolves, Derrick was the first Kindred to approach her and goad her into talking about how she felt.Ashurah and Derrick - Brujah Havenhttp://jaderosesobsidiannights.yuku.com/topic/598%3c/ref Now that she has entered a point in her unlife where the confusion over trusting herself and her own feelings is as difficult to deal with as ever, she is grateful that Derrick has been there and will continue to be there for her as she works through it. Hyrathren Su Alexander Jackson Azure Rielle Driz'vohn Quotes Soundtrack Photographs References Category:Kindred Category:Brujah Category:Player Character